*Surprise your Friends* Daytime “Sleepover” Party

I can’t believe my little girl is 7 years old already!  We were planning a party for a couple of weeks from now.  But, we had some scheduling conflicts, and I had to put the party together in 3 days!  This is UNHEARD of in this house!  Normally, I would plan, stress, decorate, and stress some more for weeks and weeks before one of my kids’ birthday parties!  But, honestly, I took the laid back approach (who am I kidding), and pulled it all together in a couple of days using some of our decorations from last years Pinkalicious party and some great colorful paper décor from Party City.





The best part of this birthday bash was that the birthday girl was in on all of the planning.  I think it made her feel a little more grown up help plan the party and keep it a secret from her friends. 
She wanted a sleepover for her birthday party, but we just felt like age 7 was a little too soon for our family.  So we came up with the idea of a daytime sleepover.  A kind of “pretend” slumber party!
So, instead of a nighttime party, we had an early morning pancake and pajama fest!  I contacted all of the moms ahead of time and asked them to have the girls dressed in their “going out” pj’s.  They were to keep everything a secret from the girls.  We only invited the number of girls that we could fit in our SUV.  We headed out early, just “A”, me, and our favorite 13 yr old friend “S”, who was riding shot gun :)
By 8 a.m. we were ringing the doorbells at the homes of some sleepy but excited little girls.  Actually, they were a bit confused at first as to why were were at the door in our pj’s and why we wanted them to come with us!  It was cute!  But the moms had the sleeping bags packed, and we were well on our way to the next pick up in no time. 








And so the group of giggly girls grew as did the excitement and anticipation of who was to ring the doorbell and explain our fun plan to the next girl on the route.  By the time we reached the last house, we were picking up two girls- sisters.  The oldest ran AWAY from the door shouting “I’m not properly dressed to go out!” It was hilarious!  We quickly got her back on track by pointing out that we were ALL wearing pj’s for the party!




With the car packed full of giggly girls and sleeping bags, we were well on our way home for a bacon and pancake breakfast with all the toppings.


The ingredients for our sugar coma included:
-Home made pancakes
-mini- M&M’s
-Cherries
-Whipped cream
-chocolate syrup
-maple syrup
- chocolate chips
-blueberries
-strawberries
-Bacon


The girls were hungry and excited and dug right in.  Plates were piled high with all forbidden breakfast foods :)




After everyone had eaten enough sugar, they all took their sleeping bags upstairs to our bonus room to spread out for their sleepover. 




We put on a movie for them while hubby assembled the cake in the kitchen.  We wanted to stay with the pancake/sleepover theme, so hubby made this chocolate pancake stack from zoomyummy as a cake.  Click on over to see her beautiful photo of what it could look like.  Ours turned out more like this…


(Never you mind that rainbow “7” candle!  My girl picked that out weeks ago from the grocery store.  So we definitely HAD to use it)


While the cake was coming together, the girls played a couple of rounds of musical sleeping bags.  It was quite funny watching them scramble around the room to hop on a sleeping bag when the music stopped, because the sleeping bags were so slippery! 
Next was the impromptu dance party!



Fun!





Karate kid? Stayin’ Alive?


Cake time:



anticipation….



mmm… it was good!



Overall, this was a quick and easy to plan party with great results!  The girls had a blast, and not one of them came up and asked why I didn’t bust out the Silhouette machine and make pajama shaped garland! 

Our very favorite part of the whole party was surprising our friends!  “A”’s anticipation and the girls faces as they opened their doors and saw us standing there in our pj’s was worth all the last minute scrambling around.
What a FUN surprise :)


Happy birthday to my very favorite 7 year old!

Love,

Mommy

Linking up to these great parties:
Uncommon Designs 

Pool Noodle Dragonfly

So, I wrestled a pool noodle in order to party with the cool girls at the Pool Noodle Party.

                                                                      Party Hosts Debbiedoo’s

This thing was going to be a wreath, a skate board, and a flower!  But ultimately it became what it was meant to be… a shabby little dragonfly.



Here are the materials needed to make your own shabby dragonfly from a simple pool noodle.

-Pool Noodle
-strips of torn drop cloth
-ball of twine
- thin wooden dowel
-one pants hanger (wire top cardboard bottom)
-straight pins
-hot glue



1- cut your pool noodle in half long ways and then in half the other way.  Like a loaf of bread waiting to be buttered…mmm…

2- tear many many many strips of drop cloth and pin the ends to a piece of noodle and wrap.  This is the longest step, so put on your DVR’d episodes of “Junk Gypsies” while you wrap.

3-  Once your 4 “wings” are wrapped and cinched in at the ends with the strips of cloth, take another half of a regular pool noodle and begin wrapping it in cloth.  Sounds like we are mummifying something doesn’t it?

4- Then use your wooden dowel to attach the wings to the “body” noodle.


Hubby is helping out here :)

5- Once the dowels are in, wrap the dragonfly some more.  Criss-cross across the body and pin on the back side to be sure that everything is nice and secure.


blurry close up…

6- Once your dragonfly’s body is made, then roll some twine to form 2 eyes and hot glue them on.  Simple.




7-  Poke a hole in the top of your little guy, and bend the coat hanger top straight and drop it right in.  I used a little hot glue to secure the antennae.



close up of the antennae

So folks, there you have it.  My very last minute pool noodle creation.  I told Debbie at Refresh Restyle that I’d be late to the party, but I’d be there. 
My motto seems to be…

I was gonna be lame and just use my iPhone to take the pictures, since I was running so late to the big bash!  Well, I changed my mind and used my “good” camera.  Did you notice the fabulous quality of my photos???? Did ya?  Oh, well, with only a few minutes before the party started, I CANNOT FIND THE FILE WHERE MY PICTURES UPLOADED!!!!!  I must be crazy!  So here are some rather crappy iPhone pictures of my pool noodle project :)

I made it to the party Debbie! Oh, and I brought a date!  My shabby little dragonfly. 

 








Linking up to The Pool Noodle Party

The desk that had wings (and a little secret)

I love furniture make-overs!  I love them even more when they surprise me! 
I bought this funky little desk from a local thrift store and I had to ask a fellow customer in passing about it’s “wings”…



He said that they were for you to rest your elbows on while you work.  Okay…

As with all furniture around here, this one sat in the the garage marinating for a couple of months before I started on it.   *That’s my excuse for the furniture hoarding*

First I cleaned off the top to try to get rid of those rings and dirt.  They didn’t come off easily, so I got out my electric sander with some 150 grit sandpaper.  The yuck came right off and much to my surprise I found the most beautiful yellow chippy paint underneath that faded white.  I went all around the skirt and legs to expose some of the yellow everywhere.  The top had these wonderful wormholes and chippy paint….




It was then that I decided that this desk did NOT need to be painted!  I just cleaned it up and sanded it to show the beautiful yellow.  I then made the
 difficult decision to REMOVE THE YELLOW WINGS!  I know, I know.  It’s a tragedy to take off those cool elbow rests.  But honestly, there was a little drawer under those wings that couldn’t be used with the wings intact.  The wings were old and wonky and not really all that pretty the more I looked at them.


Here it is with the wings closed.  Can’t even see the drawer.
So off they came… 



A little more sanding…  That electric sanding is kinda addicting isn’t it?  I then used a clear poly to go over the top and chippy sides. I wanted to retain the “chips”.  I knew I’d be taking this to my shop.  I always touch furniture before I buy it, and I imagine most people do.  I envisioned coming in to find the cute little desk sitting next to a pile of paint flakes on the floor.  Oh, the horror!! 

Here she is all prettied up in my side yard before I threw her in the car with 2 minutes to spare before picking up my kids from school :) Or should I have said “gently placed her in my car to take her to my booth for sale.”?  Either way, here she is…




















Oh, and I replaced this knob with a dark brown wooden one right after this picture….

I took it in to the shop on Thursday afternoon, and I was in the store on Friday morning when a cute young couple came in and was looking at it.  They stalked it a while and then told me they had to have it for their wedding.  Their wedding colors are to be yellow and white.  I think I was as excited as they were to see this sweet little piece go home with them!


Happy Wedding sweet couple!

Happy Weekend ya’ll!








Linking up to these great parties:

Annie Sloan’s Napoleonic Blue-yes! Old White-not so much…

I’m here with a great little table that I just painted with Annie Sloan’s Napoleonic Blue.  I then sanded her to make sure she felt the love, and applied dark and clear Annie Sloan’s waxes.  Now she’s been buffed to a beautiful shine!  I love her! 



I just popped open this can of Napoleonic Blue for this table.  There is just something special about opening a new can of paint.  It’s so exciting! 
I felt that way the first time I opened a can of Annie Sloan’s Old White chalk paint.  But I have never had the same love affair with the Old White that I have with the deeper colored Annie Sloan paints.  I don’t know if it’s the difference in pigments.  I do not claim to know ANYTHING about the make-up of paints!  But I do definitely notice a difference in the consistency of my Old White can(s) versus my Napoleonic blue or Antibes Green or Emperors Silk colors.  Those colors just glide onto the piece, making it beautiful almost instantly.  The Old White makes me WORK harder!  I’ve been told to add a little water, and I have added some to my working palette on occasion.  I honestly don’t blame Annie or her Old White mixture for this problem.  The results can be amazing! 
I painted this table a while back with Old White, and have gotten great feedback from the gal that purchased it!  That makes me so happy!



But, I think the bottom line is that the COLORS are calling me! They make me happy!  My paintbrush loves them!  And my booth just thrives when I add color!
Don’t worry, Old White, I can’t live without you!  You are the original… but I am stepping out of the box-for now!

Happy Thursday to you!


**Oh, and "Beautiful Blue" has already sold, so I won't be bringing her home to live in my sunroom where she fit in so nicely...**







Linking up to these great parties:

Crafty, Scrappy, Happy Me Thursday,

It’s Yard Sale Season!!!

Hi All!  I have been one busy girl, and my blog has been sadly neglected :(  But…I’m having my blog made over, so that it’s more “Me”!  I’ll be working with Carly from Playful Pickle Designs. She has done some amazing blog designs, so I am excited to get started!

Now, back to the title of this post… It’s Yard Sale Season!!!!  I love it!
In the colder months (I can’t call it “Winter”, because we don’t really have a true Winter in GA), the yard sales are very very sparse.  But now that the sun and sand gnats have come out, the sales are everywhere! 
Now that I have my booth, I have an excuse to go out on Saturday mornings, because I need to get stuff to fill my booth. Before that, I was just going out for fun and hoarding tons of cool stuff! Now, I’m sharing the booty with others who like cool stuff!

This awesome wagon is staying right here on my front porch!  I am going to get some blooming flowers to put in it THIS WEEK!  No more procrastinating! 

I put together a little vignette from some of the items in my garage.  They are all from yard sales, estate sales, or Craigslist ads that I’ve gone to in the past few weeks.  I randomly pulled these items out in about 5 minutes.  Believe me…there’s plenty more booty where that came from :)



Take a closer look at this awesomeness!

I have been looking for a metal fan FOREVER!  And I needed one more metal scale to make a collection (I have 2 already).  I am keeping both of these beauties…  but the 2 pitchers are darling; the chicken is adorable; and the tiny wooden chair and lamp are super cute.



Here I scored a really cute footstool that is begging for a stencil on top.  I have 6 of these wooden crate “thingies”, which I plan to make into some type of painted shelving.  And the beautiful turquoise wood is from a broken table.  I LOVE this color, and the wood is perfectly aged!  Yes!  I bought parts of a broken table from a yard sale for $1.00!  Don’t be jealous!  I have plans for that beautiful wood too.  Oh, and the table in the background of the photos was picked up at a yard sale this past weekend.  I’m gonna paint it this week and put it in my booth.

Don’t get me wrong, I still go to every Thrift store on every corner.  I love ‘em all!  But, nothing beats the variety and the prices of a good old fashioned yard sale.



~P.S. For those of you reading this post who live in my city… it’s much more fun to sleep in on Saturday mornings than to be up and out the door by 6:30 a.m.  Besides, you’ll have to stand outside in the gnats next to old women complaining about how the sale should have started 5 minutes ago and how there’s nothing there that they want anyway!  Yeah, you should just stay in bed.


Happy Yard sale shopping!!








Linking to these great parties:

It’s been a while…Spring has Sprung

I haven’t written a blog post in over a month.  I can’t believe it’s been that long!  So many things have been going on, but I’ve had no time to blog about them, and some of them are just “life” and are not for blogging anyway.  I have missed being able to sit down and share thoughts and pictures with everyone though.

When I last posted, I was headed to the Southern Women’s Show in Savannah.  I had a great time and met some really wonderful bloggy friends.  I’ve kept in touch with a few of them and plan to continue those special relationships.  I even have some giveaways coming up along with highlights of some of the vendors from the show. 

I’ve really been working hard to update my booth for Spring.  You know, it's hard to blog and keep a booth running.  Anyone else find it difficult to balance?

Here’s what "Today is my Someday" looks like right now.
What do you think?  I need a round table in the middle?  Funny you should say that... I'm working on one right now!

This is a view from the front door.  All dressed up for Spring!
       
                  These are a few of my favorite fun new pieces!
                                     

The pictures are from my iPhone.  Hubby changed the settings on the “good” camera, so we could try out the Light Scoop that he got me for Christmas.  Well, we haven’t gotten around to going through the tutorial, and we can’t remember how to change it all back.  Yikes!



I love “before and after’s”.  So, I’ll leave you with a couple of  easy, fun makeover pictures to inspire you to paint or reupholster something of your own.

The cute yellow chair in the pictures above… I got it from a yard sale.  I don’t have a complete “before” shot, but I do have a picture of the BEAUTIFUL (insert sarcasm here) fabric that was on the seat.


Ick!
This fabric was on that sunny YELLOW chair with the beautiful curvy legs! 


Now that’s better!  Just a little fabric refresher and an attack of the palm sander, and she’s beautiful again!

Hope you are enjoying your Spring!